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Feb 26, 2015

Those Dreaded Setbacks

When you're chronically ill you tend to be open to trying just about anything to feel better.

You try to do the right things, follow the right diet, try different medications or herbs, and search for the right doctor.

If it's working you might begin to notice improvement and you may celebrate even the smallest difference.

Many of us with chronic illness will find ourselves getting slammed with a setback or even a relapse at some point. Sometimes we'll just go right back to feeling the miserable way we were before we put forth all the effort.

This has happened to us more times than I can count, especially when we followed our antibiotic and herbal protocols along with our specialized diets. It was so discouraging.

It was frustrating and at times left us completely hopeless.

Roller-coaster emotions can take over if I'm not careful. Fear rolls in when a relapse occurs whether it's my relapse or one of my children.

During the time when we experience progress or a period of well-being, hope returns and I always think, "this is it, we'll finally be free of this disease."

When symptoms return I usually find myself fearful over "those" questions, you know the ones; "What will I do if this doesn't work?", "Will we ever get better?", "Will we be this way for the rest of our lives?".

Those questions do nothing to spring up hope but rather drive us deeper into hopelessness and even despair. It's best to avoid those thoughts if at all possible.

This past year (2015) our family has been celebrating the renewed health for several of us but especially for one of our daughters.

We switched from antibiotics and herbs to using homeopathic remedies and within a few months my sweet girl was doing all those things she had always wanted to do.

Recently her doctor announced she was Lyme free. Wow, now that's something to celebrate.

However, I know that Lyme is not the only problem here. Lyme is never the only infection you can get when bit by a tick.

Those itty-bitty critters can inject all kinds of disgusting things into you causing a multitude of symptoms and years and years of trying to discover why you're still sick.

Lyme also wreak havoc on your immune system allowing other viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections to do a happy dance in your body.

We know our daughter has Babesiosis, Bartonella, viral infections, heavy metal toxicity among other things. Some of these things still need to be addressed.

It's kind of like looking at a sliced onion, you'll see hundreds of little layers inside.

When treating tick-borne infections there are many layers you need to work through to gain complete wellness.

Typically, you'll treat one infection and the other infection that was hiding behind the first will come out roaring and making it's presence known.

Some doctors will load you up on every kind of medication at once hoping to knock everything out in one full sweep.

This is hard on the immune system, though some do respond well to this type of protocol most are left depleted and trying to restore and regain what little bit of their health they have left.

So, while my daughter appears on the outside to have had a minor relapse, this time I find that I'm not getting fearful like I would have been in the past.

This time we know that she is still in the healing process, that we found something that is working for her and that as we target these other infections she may have symptoms come and go.

We also found out that when she gets a secondary infection like a cold, the flu or any other everyday illness, her already weakened immune system can't fight off everything at once so it takes a little break from focusing on the tick-borne illnesses and targets the new infection. This causes her old symptoms to reappear again but thankfully much milder than they were originally.

I know that we are on the right track. What we're doing for her is working and once we peel back all those layers and deal with, rather then cover up all of the other infections, she will be symptom free and hopefully not having to worry about a relapse ever again.

If you find yourself having a relapse, don't fear. Fear will impair your immune system even further. Being positive helps your body to heal, it really does.

Do what you can and work with your doctor to find out what's causing the relapse. Try to get the rest you need and allow your body to heal.

Don't be afraid to try new things, do a little research for yourself or ask a friend to help especially if prescription medications are offered but most of all pray for wisdom and healing.